Mocking Death
by Realise-FrenchFries
Summary: He heard a scream so full of fright and torment the sound of it crystallized his blood. Armin activated his three-dimensional maneuver gear within a flash and took to the skies, with both blades clenched in a white-knuckled grip. Smashing through anything that kept him from reaching his grandfather. Not everything you hear is true, Armin and Mikasa learnt that the hard way.


**_Notes:_**_I got inspired by a chapter in the Hunger Games Catching Fire to write this. Some slight Eremika near the end of the oneshot, but this is mostly based on Armin and Mikasa. I hope you like it. _

**~x~**

He heard it first.

The screaming.

He heard a scream so full of fright and torment the sound of it alone crystallized his blood. It was so familiar it managed to strike fear into his heart. Armin sprang to his feet, forgetting where he was, he activated his three-dimensional maneuver gear within a flash and took to the skies, effortlessly swinging from tree to tree in the forest of high trees. The only thing he could focus on was the fact that he must reach him. He must protect him. Armin recklessly advanced in the direction of the voice, heedless of danger, not caring about his welfare. Ripping through vines and branches, smashing through the wildlife with both blades clenched in a white-knuckled grip. Through anything that kept him from reaching his grandfather.

_I though he died! Where is he?_ "Grandpa!" Armin cried out urgently. "Grandpa!" In response another anguished scream bit into his bones - but it wasn't his grandpa. It was a woman's voice. _Who's that? Am I hearing things?_ Just as those thoughts crossed his fragile mind, a strong breeze slapped his body to the side, causing him to wobble slightly like balancing on a pirate's plank. He looked up and saw a girl with raven hair streaking through the atmosphere like a bird of prey, zipping from wire to wire on her three-dimensional maneuver gear.

More jagged branches sliced his cheeks and cut open his arms, but he felt no pain. As his ocean azure eyes widen at the girl a few miles ahead of him, recognising who it is was. "Mikasa!"

Another scream. His grandfather.

It seemed that Mikasa was heading in the same direction, and in hot pursuit just like him. They were getting closer to the source. Closer. Very close now. Sweat poured like broken pipes from Armin's forehead, stinging his eyes as the screams continued trembling through the woodland. The woman made another sound - such a lost, hopeless sound - that he couldn't begin to imagine what was happening to evoke it.

"Mom!" Armin heard Mikasa howl in front of him. "I'm coming! Mom!" She was panting, trying to suck in short handfuls of breath on her journey to save her mother. Completely forgetting for a second that she died in front of her as a child. The moist air surrounding Mikasa felt empty of oxygen.

"Grandpa!" Armin quickened his speed, chopping through a wall of green along with Mikasa into a small clearing. The sound repeated itself directly above both of them. _Where is he?!_ Both teenagers whipped their attention to the sky. _Are they in the trees?_ Mikasa and Armin desperately searched the branches but discovered no trace of their beloved parents. "Mom?" The pleading twang embedded in her voice literally killed Armin, she sounded like a little girl who wanted to wake up from a nightmare. As well as being concerned for his grandpa he couldn't help but sympathize with his friend at the same time.

They could still hear the cries hidden somewhere above, but they couldn't see anyone there. Armin's grandfather and Mikasa's mother both screeched at the same time, and there's no mistaking the source. It was there, as clear as day. Coming from the mouth of a tiny, crested blue bird perched on a branch about fifteen feet above them. Their panic turned into confusion. Neither of them had ever seen a bird like this before, and for a moment, as Armin leaned against the trunk of the tree, clutching the stitch in his side, he examined it. It had bigger wings than the birds they normally saw behind the Walls. Wings that were more fluffy, more dominate. The blonde warrior pulled up a mental image of a bird he once read about in a book, fusing it together with the creature he saw right now, he remembered a vital piece of information. And the stunning realization of it all throttled him.

This bird was a Urlare.

A very rare breed that was thought to be extinct when the titans appeared on the earth. Some thought that Urlares were mythical birds, something of legend and a scary bedtime story you were told when you was a child. He heard stories about the church people calling Urlares the birds of mocking death because they copied the cries of those who died in battle. There was nothing about the feathered creature that suggested it was an abnormal like a titan. Nothing except the horribly lifelike sounds of his grandpa's voice singing from its mouth.

_It's not real._ He calmed himself by exhaling softly through his nose, closing his eyes momentarily to get over the trauma that experience put him through.

"Armin? Mikasa?" Far away amongst many trees Eren's voice echoed hastily into their earshot.

Mikasa twirled around to answer her brother, but yet another piercing shriek silenced her off. It was another voice, not her mother's though, maybe a young man's. Armin didn't recognize it. But the impact it had on Mikasa was instantaneous. The natural color vanished from her cheeks and he could actually see her pupils dilate in fear. "Mikasa, wait!" Armin shot out to reassure his friend, but she was already bolting through the forest on foot, forgetting to use her three-dimensional maneuver gear. Gone off in pursuit of the victim, as mindlessly as he pursued his grandpa. "Mikasa!" Armin called again, but he knew that she wouldn't turn back for him to give a rational explanation. So all he could do was follow her.

It took no effort at all to track her down even though she was sprinting at an impossible high speed. She left a trampled pathway in her wake, but the bird was at least a quarter mile away. Eren was still behind them, traveling like a shooting star. Armin was tempted to use his three-dimensional maneuver gear to catch up to Mikasa, but the thought occurred at the last minute when he finally reached her, feeling winded. He watched Mikasa circling around a giant tree frantically looking up, her grey eyes flickered around every branch scanning for the screams.

The man's shrieks emanated from somewhere in the foliage, but the Urlare was no where to be seen. The longer this went on, the more painful it became for her. Like taking a trip down memory lane. Mikasa started screaming as well, over and over. "Dad! Dad!" She was in a frenzy and completely unreachable by voice.

Thinking on his feet Armin activated his three-dimensional maneuver gear and soared up to the birds location, drawing out his blades from their slots, he sliced the bird with one sweep like swatting a fly. It fell lifelessly from its post, landing directly in front of Mikasa at her feet. She abruptly stopped her frenzy state, staring down at the dead creature. She picked it up, slowly making the connection in her mind. Armin swung down, but as he approached she looked up at him despairing more than ever. A mixture of disbelief and rage glistened in her eyes.

"It's okay, Mikasa. It's a bird known as a Urlare. It mimics the voices of those who have died," he says. "It's fake. It's not your dad or your mom."

Slowly she shook her head clenching harder onto the dead Urlare in her right hand. "Think about it Armin. Where did they hear those screams?" she said.

The blonde warrior felt his cheeks burning up when he eventually understood the meaning behind Mikasa's words. "You don't don't that the Urlares are born from people just like titans are?"

"Yes I do think that. There's no other way in explaining it."

Armin imagined his grandfather transforming into a azure bird, growing long wings and developing two stick-like legs, but the only sound he could make was his own dying scream and not a normal tweet. His knees suddenly turned liquidy like a river, sinking to the ground. Mikasa followed him down trying to communicate, but he couldn't hear anything.

Then another chorus of screams rang out into the undisturbed silence somewhere off to the left. And this time, there was more than one voice calling out all at once. The voices were his grandfathers and both Mikasa's mum and dad.

Catching his arm before he could bolt, Mikasa yanked Armin down to the ground looping her arms around his head like a wrapping a blanket, covering his ears in the process as well as her own. He felt her face burying itself into the top of his head. And without giving it a second thought, Armin embraced Mikasa's midsection, squeezing it so tightly he thought he was going to break her ribcage. Both of them stayed there with their eyes closed, rocking back and forth in an attempt to block out the screaming that was driving them insane.

More birds began to arrive. One by one, forming an army. They perched on the surrounding trees joining in on the song of terror. Each individual bird possessed a different venomous voice. Spitting it out of their beaks. In the heat of the moment Mikasa abruptly released Armin and started chopping the hated birds down with her blades, but each time one died another automatically took its place. There was so many of them it was hard to keep up with the count. Armin had long given up for he was now rolling on the floor roaring in frustration to try and make the screams go away. After five minutes of fighting Mikasa exhaustedly dropped to her knees and curled into a ball, joining her blonde friend in dismay. She crushed her palms against her ears so hard she could hear the blood throbbing in her brain. Trying to block out excruciating sounds of her mum and dad, Carla, and even Marco. Poor, helpless Marco.

A set of strong arms thrusted her off the floor, hurling her body over. She felt those arms snake underneath her legs like threading string, and their familiarity brought her comfort. She knew it was over. The screaming stopped. But she kept her eyes tightly sealed as if that would banish the daunting echoes from her mind. With both hands still pressed on her ears, muscles too rigid to move.

She felt her entire body hopping up and down, realizing that she was being carried from the jungle-like forest. Her grey eyes slightly cracked open to see what was going on, catching a glimpse of short brown hair, the back of Eren's head. He was giving her a piggy-back, bounding as fast as he could away from the shrieking birds. He was faster than the other soldiers in their squad because of his titan ability, his speed had increased as well as his sense of smell and taste buds, so whoever was carrying Armin was far behind them.

Then Mikasa all of a sudden felt weightlessness for the first time. Eren used his 3D maneuver gear to fly into the trees because it was too dangerous to stay on the ground, you never knew when another titan was going to pounce on its prey. Once he secured a safe place for them to wait, the titan boy instantly collapsed into a heap, clutching his foster sister inside his arms like hugging a stuffed bear to death. Rocking back and forth with his right cheek nuzzled into her hair. It took time for Mikasa to relax, her iron hands gradually released the pressure from her ears. And she gazed up, realising who her saviour was. The trembling began.

"Your a stubborn idiot," Eren whispered bluntly. "I told you not to follow the voices but you did it anyway."

"You didn't hear them." Mikasa eventually answered.

"I heard my mom. But I ignored it. Because I knew it wasn't her, she's dead." He said. "How can a bird mimic her voice when she's not alive?"

"What if...what if the birds were born from people just like titans," she said.

In rapid succession a series of emotions fleeted across Eren's face: horror, bewilderment, annoyance and disbelief. The bottom of his jaw dropped a couple of feet. "Don't be stupid!" He spat out in disgust, immediately regretting how harsh his voice was. "They have nothing to do with titans."

"Then how can they mimic someone's dying scream?"

Eren's hold on Mikasa loosened a bit. With two fingers he lifted her chin up so that she was forced to make eye contact with him. "It's not real, your mom and dad are dead. My mom is dead. Nothing can fix that. And nothing can bring them back."

"They scream all the time," both of them looked up and saw Jean landing flawlessly into the tree beside them with a terrified Armin still clung to his back like a shell. His golden hair covered most of his face, buried heavily into Jean's shoulder, but his ears were exposed so he could hear again. "They scream that much they sound like someone you know, and that's the point because they fool you into thinking that its whoever they are trying to mimic," the soldiers gaze flickered gravily between Eren and Mikasa. Doing his best to hide the raw envy from his face at how close the two of them were, their closeness didn't seem to bother either of them, but it stirred Jean to no end. "Eren's right, it's not real."

Mikasa desperately wanted to believe both of her comrades. But those voices...it was enough to give her fresh nightmares.

"First your mom. Your dad, my mom, and Marco," Eren continued. "It was a trick, Mikasa. A nasty one. But we're the only ones who can be hurt by it, because we still have something to lose."

"You really believe that?" Mikasa said.

"Yeah, I really do," He said. She hesitated, thinking about how sometimes Eren can make people believe everything he says. Mikasa glanced over at Jean, to Armin, and back, feeling as cornered as a mouse, she decided to let it go. Knowing that she wasn't going to win this debate against two men who were so confident in their answer. Though she still couldn't move from her place. Cocooned like a caterpillar inside her brother's embrace, accompanied by the small warmth his chest provided, her bones still felt like blocks of titanium, too heavy to push or pull.

Titans appeared from behind the glint of sunlight in the distance, sluggishly approaching the entrance of the forest, wearing their usual demented expressions. The four soldiers had to wait out their time, staying quiet to allow the giants to pass through undisturbed. Once the coast was clear and there was no sign of activity, Eren and Jean activated their gear swiftly, carrying their friends out of the wilderness.


End file.
